The Things We Do for Love

We've decided to refurbish our back yard for a number of reasons, the greatest of which is that it boasts a 7' privacy fence which will allow the dogs to run and run without worry of them barking at passersby or the neighbor dogs. Job one was to hire a contractor to replace a fence panel that has been missing since we moved in. He's coming on Tuesday.

Job two. Oh, job two. We have a very large deck in the back yard which has crawl space underneath. Just big enough for the dogs to get under. We've peeked under there before and it's full of spider webs, broken bottles, and other trash. So naturally we wanted to make it safe for the dogs.

So let me set the scene. It's January. In Minnesota. So there is a LOT of crusty snow out back. So I carved out a space to gain access to the underbelly of the deck. Readers, I am not a small woman. But I love my dogs, so I grabbed a bucket and belly-crawled under that deck to gather the trash. Among my new-found treasures were beer bottles, bits of tin foil, a Matchbox car, barrettes, a femur of animal unknown, lots of feral cat poo, and, naturally, a dead squirrel. Good times.

We cleaned it all up, but decided to install latticework around the periphery of the deck to block dog access... just in case.

The things we do for love.